This invention relates to the preparation of vaccines and their use in preparing compositions for specifically preventing and treating dermatomycosis.
Dermatomycoses in animals are anthropozoonotic diseases of the skin and related tissue. Clinical symptoms are characterized by loss of hair in the affected area, hyperemia, scaling and asbestos-like scabs. Inflammation is often accompanied by suppuration. Dermatomycoses are often also characterized by localized infection of the skin.
Dermatomycoses in animals carry a substantial socioeconomic impact. Diseased animals required prolonged treatment and can spread infection to both animals and humans.
Up till now, dermatomycoses have been treated using various types of medication applied locally to affected areas of the skin. These included the ointments YaM, Yuglon (I) and a number of other ointments, liniments, solutions and other substances containing fungicides and fungistatic agents.
The disadvantages of such treatments were:                they were not very effective;        they required the adoption of quarantine measures and disinfection of areas where animals were kept (rearing pens, vivaria, farms, zoos, circuses, etc.);        they required substantial funds to be spent on drug preparations and veterinary treatment;        they posed difficulties in immobilizing the animals (for wild animals held in captivity).        
Later vaccines were developed to treat trichophytosis in cattle (see USSR Patent No. 268593, 1970), fur-bearing animals and rabbits (see USSR Patent No. 835446, 1980), camels (see USSR Patent No. 1190574, 1985) and others.
A vaccine had also been developed earlier for the prevention and treatment of trichophytosis in horses: S-P-I (see USSR Patent No. 548947, 1976).
The S-P-I vaccine contains the vaccinal strain Trichophyton equinum No. 2251/71, deposited with the USSR All-Union State Scientific Control Institute of Veterinary Preparations, which is cultivated in agar/wort for 20–25 days at a temperature of 26–28° C. The fungal mass is then lifted from the surface of the nutrient medium, mixed with sterile distilled water and homogenized, and the concentration of cells is brought to 600–900 million per ml. The homogenate is transferred to a separate flask and stabilized with a mixture containing 2–8% gelatine (gelatose) and 10–40% sucrose in the ratio 1:1 (±25%), then lyophilized.
For prophylactic and treatment purposes the vaccine is injected into the muscle tissue of the neck area of juvenile and mature horses in two doses of 1–2 cc, depending on the age of the horse, with an interval of 10–14 days. For therapeutic use the dosages were doubled.
Vaccines obtained using this method have the disadvantage that they do not provide immunity against microsporiae and trichophytiae caused by other agents. It has also been noted that the areas where a live vaccine is injected may become a specific focus in which cultures of vaccinal strains may at certain times be produced. Given that some species of domestic animals come into frequent contact with humans, the occurrence of such specific foci in these animals is unacceptable.